Hey, I was just wondering what clipping in an amp really is, besides somthing that damages speakers. I think i read somthin about square waves.. I dunno. Is it audiable or just somthin you can see with an 0-scope? Just curious I guess.. And what causes it? Thanks

Yes, it's both audible and visible with a scope. If your amp is asked to produce a 50v peak to peak sine wave and your amps rails are only +/-20v, the top and bottom of the wave will be cut off, or clipped. This is supposed to be the most damaging to tweeters although it's not good for woofers either.

Yes you can see this clipping on the scope.
As the other always have described, the signal will
be cut above a certain limit. Transistor amplifiers show
a very sharp limit and it is easy to see this on the scope.

You can also hear it.
If normal Music is played you will notice more and more agressive
distorsion and sometimes even missing dynamics.

Rule of thumb for a party:
How much clipping your speakers will have survive, depends
very much on the number of beers you may give to the DJ.
Or on how proper you have adjusted a limiter...

During clipping the average power is quite high, because:
- The large signals are more rectangular (cut the of a sine wave).
- During the more silent sequences of the song the amplifier may not clip, but the power is still quite high (compared to what they would be during proper operation)
This causes a lot of heat in the speaker.
Please note. Not only the Woofer is in danger, but also the tweeter.
The spectrum of rectangular signal shows a lot of components with higher frequencies.